


An Unflinching Will

by Akumeoi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bending (Avatar), Gen, Power Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-24 21:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20021452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi
Summary: Katara is exploring an ancient temple with the Gaang when she and Prince Zuko become trapped inside a chamber together. The pictures on the wall show that they should use their bending to escape - but what will they do when their bending is reversed? Katara is not supposed to be a firebender!





	An Unflinching Will

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [Crossroads Zine](https://crossroadszine.tumblr.com/). The theme of the zine was unity and separation. I tried to use this fic to show the unity underlying all bending. This fic was actually written in 2018, but we weren't allowed to post until now because the zines hadn't shipped yet. The zine was truly a labour of love, and everybody should check out that link!
> 
> The title comes from a quote from Uncle (General) Iroh, who said that benders need an unflinching will in that one episode where he tries to teach Zuko to lightning-bend.
> 
> Comments welcome!

“So you mean we’re stuck here?” Katara fumed. “Where’s Toph?” Surely an earth and metalbender could get through any door, right?

“I – uh, I don’t know, she was here just a minute ago!” Sokka called back through the closed door. Katara groaned. This sacred temple was supposed to hold ancient wisdom from the spirits, but so far all it held for Katara was annoyance. Each room was a puzzle of some kind. This one, for instance, only permitted two people inside at once, which they hadn’t realised before entering. Now Katara was stuck here with newly-crowned Firelord Zuko, who was examining the carvings on the walls, and a weird statue in the middle of the room. Katara stomped over to examine the statue and found two handprints carved into the base, one on each side.

“Come look at this statue,” Katara said, gesturing Zuko over. “I think we have to put our hands on it.” Obediently, Zuko crossed the room and stood at Katara’s side. Together, they each fitted a palm into the depressions at the base.

Immediately, the ground started shaking. Katara heard a grinding sound behind her and wanted to turn, but her body was frozen in place. The statue was exerting some kind of spiritual power over her. From Zuko’s panicked expression, she gathered it was the same for him. A dizzying sense of nausea surged through her as the room seemed to turn upside down – or was she standing on the ceiling? Then, a shock went through her body and she could suddenly move again. She and Zuko leapt backwards, away from the statue.  
“What was that?” Katara said, more freaked out than ever. Maybe she was just shaken, but it felt like something inside her had changed – but what?

At the front and back of the room, two pedestals had risen out of the floor, each supporting four bowls. The bowls at the far end of the room were empty, but those near the door contained a fan, water, a flint and tinder, and some pebbles – the four elements!

“I know what we have to do,” Zuko said. “The carvings on the wall remind me of the statues in the temple of the Sun Warriors. I think we’re supposed to copy them and dance, but while bending the elements in the bowls.”

“So we just have to bend these from one side of the room to the other?” Katara said suspiciously. What was with the weird earthquake and the magical statue, if all she had to do was bend water in a line? Katara could’ve done that when she was thirteen. So much for a temple of the masters.

They went over to the walls and practiced copying the dance steps that were carved there, then stood on either side of the pedestal with the filled bowls.

“Let’s do this,” Katara said. “On three. Ready?” Zuko nodded, and Katara counted down. On three, she reached out with her bending for the water from the bowl beside her, and Zuko mirrored her with the flint bowl. But instead of the water responding to her, something else happened: a puff of hot air shot from Katara’s fingertips. It grazed the surface of the bowls but didn’t move anything, while the water in the bowl splashed sloppily in the other direction – towards Zuko.

“What was _that?_ ” Katara whipped her hand away from the bowl and examined it frantically. She had felt something move in response to her bending, _something_ had answered her call – but it had felt wrong, it had _burned_ her. She opened the water skein that hung at her waist and tried to bend the water out, but nothing happened. In her panic she didn’t notice that the neck of the water skein was smoking. 

“Watch out!” Zuko yelled, just as Katara’s dress directly underneath the skein burst into flames. Zuko threw his hands towards her and water spurted out of the skein at last, putting out the fire.

The two stood staring at the charred patch on Katara’s dress, which was damp and smoking lightly. 

“My – my bending,” Katara said, somewhat hysterically. “What happened? Have we been… switched?”

“That statue...” Zuko exclaimed.

“It did something to us!” Katara finished angrily.

Zuko hastened to re-examine the carvings on the walls. “Maybe if we do the dance, it’ll put us back to normal. How hard can it be?”

“How can you be so calm?” 

“My uncle taught me some waterbending techniques so I could bend lightning. He said it’s about redirecting the flow of energy through your body.”

“But I don’t know anything about firebending,” Katara said despairingly. Panic rose within her as she thought of all the months, the years of practice it had taken her to achieve basic waterbending competency. 

“You must know something. Some pose, some technique... If lightningbending is like waterbending, maybe steambending is like firebending?” Katara made a face that let him know what she thought of that one, but then Zuko said, “Wait, I know. Firebending is fuelled by emotion. Think happy thoughts?”

Katara couldn’t help it – she giggled. 

“Okay,” she said. “Teach me the basics.”

Nodding, Zuko folded his arms. “Well, the first thing you should know is that firebending comes from the breath.”

At that, Katara perked up. Water healing also came from the breath, and that was something she was good at. “It’s an extension of the body’s natural energy?” she asked, to confirm.

“Yes,” Zuko said, and then went on to explain other firebending basics: how to stand and move her body, how to conjure a small flame.

This flame was warm and bright, fluttering and crackling gently in her palm. But underneath that she could feel the alien-ness of it. Fire wasn’t like water. It was hard to explain. There was an innate sense in her for water and dampness, which right now was just blocked off. In its place, she had a new sense – a fire-sense. She could feel the dryness of the air around her and the power of the flame in her palm, but it was a fuzzy awareness compared to what she should have been able to feel. It was frightening. 

“Are you sure this is safe?” she said, gazing down at the flame.

“Well, no,” Zuko admitted. “But what choice do we have?”

Katara sighed, and then the fire went out.

“Hey, wait!” she said. “How do I get it back?” 

Frowning, Zuko looked at the bowls. Then, he took the flint and lit the tinder in the fire bowl. 

“There,” he said. “Now you can take the fire from here, instead of bending it yourself.”

Katara nodded and concentrated on picking up part of the flame. For a little while, she and Zuko practiced bending the fire and water out of the bowls and around themselves. Zuko did seem to have a natural knack for waterbending – more than Katara did for firebending. At first, she was jealous. But then she pushed the feeling down; the better Zuko was at waterbending, the faster they’d get out of here.

After a few minutes of practice, Katara returned to the wall to try integrating the dance steps. Taking inspiration from her, Zuko did the same. The steps themselves weren’t too hard, but keeping the flame going was, especially as she was afraid she might burn herself or Zuko as she contorted her body through the steps. She could feel energy flowing through her breath, just like when she healed or turned water to ice. Fire was closer to steam in the way it moved, but like blood it came from within the body rather than being generated outside it. Bending it was unlike anything she’d ever done before, and she had to draw on all her experience to master it.

Katara noticed Zuko failing a couple of moves, and temporarily let the flames evaporate from her palms. “Here, let me help you,” she said, then showed him how she did the steps.

After some time, Katara wiped sweat from her brow. 

“I think we’re ready.” 

Zuko nodded. “Sure. Let’s do this.”

They got into position, flanking the pedestal with the four elements on it. Katara’s heart beat in her chest. 

“On three,” she said, reaching out her hand towards the smouldering bowl of fire. “One... two... three!”

Reaching out with her strange new fire-sense, Katara grabbed the flame from the bowl and began guiding it around her as her feet copied the steps.  
The fire danced around her in one long, continuous flame. Although Katara could see the fire dancing in her palms and feel its gentle heat, her body was moving as if she were bending water. In that moment, fire became familiar to her, even welcome. The steps flowed through her naturally as if she had known them all her life, as if she were being guided by her element rather than her guiding it. It was exhilarating.

And then she was slamming the fire down at the end, into the empty bowl on the other side of the room. Beside her, Zuko guided the water into his own empty bowl.

Behind them the statue’s eyes flashed. They felt the room turn upside down again, and then a doorway was opening in front of them – the exit.

“Let’s go,” Katara said, grabbing Zuko’s hand and hauling him out of the room. As soon as they were out, the stone door slid shut, and they could hear some mechanical clanks as the pedestals and bowls retracted back into the floor. 

Letting go of Zuko’s hand, Katara flipped her water skein open and a thin stream of water danced over her fingers. 

“Oh, thank goodness,” Katara said, sagging against the wall. Zuko shot a few fireballs out of his fists at the wall opposite them, blackening the stone with soot. Then he leaned back against the wall beside her, looking as relieved as she felt. In spite of his earlier calmness, it seemed Zuko wanted to be a waterbender for the rest of his life about as much as Katara wanted to be a firebender. 

“Well, I guess we survived that one,” Zuko said. He and Katara looked at each other, then burst into laughter. 

“You make a pretty good waterbender,” Katara said.

“You’re not a bad firebender yourself.”

They were wiping the tears of laughter from their eyes when they heard another sound from the room behind them. Then, they heard a familiar voice – Sokka.

“Oh no – we forgot to warn them,” Katara said, turning towards the door. 

But before she could call out to her brother, she heard Aang shout, “Help! We touched a weird statue and now Sokka is the avatar!”


End file.
